Animal feeders, including wildlife feeders, are known in the prior art to dispense feed to domestic animals, such as outdoor cats and dogs when the owner is unable to be present, as well as wildlife. There are two types of feeders, a passive feeder that does not use a motor and an active feeder that uses a motor to cast feed from a hopper onto the ground. Active feeders usually include a control unit having a timer and are battery or electric powered, permitting the user to set a timer to dispense the feed at regular intervals. The animals, domestic and wild, learn these intervals and will tend to aggregate at the feeder at those times. The problem is that prior art feeders, both passive and active, are susceptible to being raided by squirrels, chipmunks, etc. prior to dispensing the food.
In a passive feeder, the feed is fed from a hopper into a feed trough and the feed lays adjacent a trough opening with the animal eating from the mouth of the food trough. As the food is eaten, gravity will allow more to enter the feed trough. Such a feed mechanism is entirely passive, depending as it does on the impetus of gravity to allow the granular feed to continue to move into the feed trough as the animal eats from the end of the trough. This provides food at all times which, if the intent is to feed a domestic animal at specific times, will attract wildlife and the food will be rapidly consumed